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MEXICO 



By 
JOHN WESLEY BUTLER 

Thirty-two Years Missionary 
in Mexico 




CINCINNATI: JENNINGS & GRAHAM 
NEW YORK: EATON & MAINS 



^^f. 



UBRARYefCGNSRESS 

Two Copies Received 

MAh :u 1907 

n Cypyriffht Intry 

'1)U3S >\ XXcNe. 

IJ / U / </ 

COPY B. • 



Copyright, 1907, by 
Jennings & Graham 



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THROUGH ALL THESE YEARS 
A FAITHFUL HELPMEET 



CONTENTS 



Chapter Pags 

I. Physical Conditions, - - - 7 

II. Ancient Inhabitants and Monu- 
ments, - - - - 15 

III. Pre-Colonial Dynasties, - - 21 

IV. The Tragedy of the Sixteenth 

Century, - - - - 29 

V. Crusaders and Inquisitors, - 41 

VI. The Prey of Priests and Vice- 
roys, 49 

VII. Liberators and Reformers, - 59 

VIII. The Intrigue and Its Failure, 69 

IX. The Macedonian Cry, - 81 

X. Planting the Mission and Look- 
ing Forward, - - - 93 
5 



MEXICO 



CHAPTER I. 

Physical Conditions. 

Sou'TH of our Western States the Repub- 
lic of Mexico lies between 14° 30' 42'' and 
32° 42' North latitude. A glance at the 
map shows the country with the appearance 
of an immense cornucopia, its mouth toward 
the United States, and having a cotermin- 
ous boundary of 1,833 miles; its concave 
side toward the Gulf of Mexico and the 
Caribbean Sea for 1,727 miles: its convex 
or western line washed for 4,574 miles by 
the Pacific Ocean, whose line describes the 
arc of a larger circle. Toward the south, 
at the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, where the 
country is only about one hundred miles 
from ocean to ocean, it turns abruptly to 
the east, so that portion is bounded on the 
north by the Gulf of Mexico, and on the 
7 



8 Mexico 

south both by Central America and the 
Pacific. Mexico has a larger coast line in 
proportion to its area, than any other coun- 
try in the world. The Tropic of Cancer 
crosses Mexico somewhat north of the 
cities of San Luis Potosi and Zacatecas. 
Railway officials frequently call the atten- 
tion of tourists to that fact as they cross 
it. The country now contains 767,326 
square miles, nearly equal in extent to the 
territory of the United States east of the 
Mississippi River. One hundred years ago 
the population of Mexico and the United 
States was about the same. Now the popu- 
lation of the United States is six times that 
of Mexico ; the causes will be apparent later 
on. By the annexation of Texas in 1845, 
the Guadalupe Hidalgo treaty of 1848, and 
the Gadsden treaty of 1853, the United 
States took from Alexico 930,590 square 
miles, or more than half her original terri- 
tory. But for these losses, Mexico to-day 
would be nearly two-thirds the size of our 
own country. It may be doubted whether 
half the people in the United States know 
that sixty years ago Texas, California, 
Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, 



Physical Conditions 9 

Nevada, Oklahoma, part of Wyoming, and 
part of Kansas all belonged to Mexico. 
Whatever may be alleged concerning rights 
of conquest, war indemnities, or even the 
right of Texas to secede, candid students 
of history certainly will blush for the man- 
ner in which our government acquired 
Mexico's lost provinces. Treaties make 
"valid" certain issues, but they do not al- 
ways take into account their moral side. 
Let us hope that Providence, whose hand 
we would recognize in all, and who wisely 
overrules all the mistakes of nations as well 
as of individuals, will help us in some way 
to compensate the injustice done a weaker 
nation. 

The Republic is divided into twenty- 
seven States, two Territories, and one Fed- 
eral District, the last being organized and 
governed like the District of Columbia. 
Only four of the States lie within the terri- 
tory of Central America, and the rest in 
North America. . 

The population now is upwards of fifteen 
millions, but the country could easily main- 
tain fifty millions. The people may be 
classified as follows: about one-fifth Eu- 



10 Mexico 

ropean descent, two-fifths of mixed races, 
and two-fifths natives. The late Matias 
Romero, for so many years Mexico's able 
diplomatic representative at Washington, 
gives the figures more exactly as follows: 
European descent, 19 per cent ; mixed races, 
38 per cent; and native Indians, 43 per 
cent. 

The Cordilleras formerly were consid- 
ered a continuation of the Andes of South 
America, originating in Patagonia and ex- 
tending along both continents. But re- 
searches made by French engineers dur- 
ing the intervention established that the 
Andes proper terminate at Panama, and 
that the IMexican Cordilleras are an inde- 
pendent range. On the western slope they 
are known as the Sierra IMadre del Occi- 
dente, running the entire length of the 
country, and through California they take 
the name of the Sierra Nevada. The east- 
ern range runs through many depressions 
across Texas, and connects with the Rocky 
Mountains of the United States. 

The two ranges in Mexico are like par- 
allel gigantic walls towering heavenward, 
occasionally culminating in a peak among 



Physical Conditions 11 

the clouds, perpetually crowned with snow. 
Between them, and protected by them from 
the severity of the ocean storms on either 
side, stretches the great central plateau, 
running almost the entire length, with an 
average elevation of five to eight thousand 
feet above sea-level. 

Topographical conditions result in a 
great variety of climate and scenery. For 
instance : between the ports of Tampico or 
Vera Cruz and the plateau, in a few hours 
by rail, the traveler may taste of the torrid, 
temperate, and frigid zones. There is per- 
haps no other country in the world In which 
climate depends more upon altitude than 
latitude. Indeed, the central plateau for 
ten months of the year enjoys something 
which approaches perpetual spring, with a 
mean temperature of 62 to 70 degrees 
Fahrenheit. The same altitude in the lati- 
tude of Boston or New York would induce 
almost an Arctic climate. 

Generally the foreigner coming to the 
country, following dictates of common 
sense and laws of health, will find healthy 
and attractive conditions almost every- 
where. It is true that yellow fever and 



12 Mexico 

other tropical diseases are sometimes met, 
but the wise sanitary laws of the Federal 
Government, with the hearty co-operation 
of local authorities, are improving matters, 
especially along the coasts. 

Historians and travelers alike have lav- 
ished admiration on the magnificent scen- 
ery in Mexico. Well they may. It baffles 
description. Some compare it to the scen- 
ery in Switzerland. Everything, however, 
in Mexico is on a grander scale, although 
the latitude of Switzerland gives a lower 
snow line, and consequently many more 
peaks are perpetually white, and there are 
numerous lakes, and hence a greater nat- 
ural beauty. There, however, the scenic 
is confined to a small territory, while in 
Mexico it is vast, and the mountains are 
grander in their heavenward towering. 
Humboldt, who had traveled in every con- 
tinent, declared there was no natural scen- 
ery anywhere quite equal to the view from 
the Castle of Chapultepec in the storied 
valley where stands the City of Mexico, 
and toward any point of the compass your 
eye meets mountains twelve to fifteen' miles 
distant, surrounding the beautiful valley 



Physical Conditions 13 

as the everlasting mountains "are round 
about Jerusalem." The purity of the at- 
mosphere seems to bring the mountains 
much nearer, and one fancies it would be 
only a pleasant morning walk to the foot 
hills. From the roof of the house you will 
be able to take in with the natural vision 
the three great lakes and dozens of little 
villages scattered here and there through 
the valley. No eye can ever weary contem- 
plating the peaks, eternally encrowned with 
snow, kissing the firmament like giants of 
the ages standing guard over the Valley of 
Tenoctitlan. 

"Each traveler in his turn described the 
valley in which he has tarried longest as 
the loveliest in the world; nowhere else do 
the snowy crests or smoking volcanic cones 
rise in more imposing grandeur above the 
surrounding sea of verdure, all carpeted 
with the brightest flowers. In these en- 
chanted regions there Is still room for mil- 
lions and millions of human beings." 

The following table of the mountain 
peaks (the first ten being volcanoes) will 
give further Idea of the broken surface of 
the country : 



14 



M 



exico 



Mountains. 



Popocatepetl, . . . . 

Orizaba, 

Toluca, ...... 

Ixtacihuatl, 

Colima, 

Zapotlan, ...... 

San Martin de Tuxtla, 

Tancitaro, 

Jorullo, 

Tacana or Soconusco, 

Guarda, 

Ajusco, 

Cofre de Perote, . 
Zempoaltepec, . . . . 
Pico de Quinceo, . . . 
Veta Grande, . . . . 



States. 



Mexico, 

Vera Cruz and Puebla 

Mexico, 

Mexico and Puebla, . 

Jalisco, 

Jalisco, 

Vera Cruz, 

Michoacan, 

Michoacan, 

Chiapas, 

Federal District, . . 
Federal District, . . 

Vera Cruz, 

Oaxaca, 

Michoacan, 

Zacatecas, 



ELEVATION 
IN FEET. 



17,540 
17,362 
15,019 
16,076 

14,363 

12,743 
4,921 

12,467 
4,265 
7,436 
9,731 

13,628 

13,641 

11,141 

10,905 

9,140 



There are but few rivers in the central 
plateau. As the country drops suddenly to 
either side, these rivers, fed not alone by 
mountain springs, but by the perpetual 
melting of enormous snow banks of the 
volcanoes, increase greatly, and near the 
coast some of them are navigable for many 
miles inland. During the American war 
a whole fleet of gunboats passed Tampico 
and went forty miles up the Panuco, which 
is known as Mexico's Mississippi. Next 
to the Panuco, the rivers Rio Grande, Bal- 
sas, Lerma, and Popoloapam are the more 
important. Three of these empty into the 
Gulf, and two Into the Pacific. 



CHAPTER II. 

Ancient Inhabitants and Monuments. 

No BOOK on Mexico would even be re- 
motely complete which did not at least 
briefly glance, not merely at the inhabitants 
found here by the Spanish conquerors, but 
those who had preceded them by long cen- 
turies. Cortes found hoary empires, cities 
long lost in ruins, temples and palaces of 
whose origin little could be learned, pyra- 
mids ancient as those of Egypt, hiero- 
glyphic inscriptions which the tooth of time 
had only partially effaced, and m.any evi- 
dences of ancient civilizations in some re- 
spects superior even to that of the Spaniard. 

The history of these ancient inhabitants 
who bequeathed these eloquent though in- 
animate evidences of a departed glory is 
highly enchanting. It is to be regretted 
that the prescribed limits of this book pre- 
clude the possibility of a satisfactory study 
IS 



16 Mexico 

of this subject. The Epworth Reading 
Course for 1895, published by the Meth- 
odist Book Concern, included a small work 
entitled ''Sketches of Mexico," where the 
interested reader may find an introduction 
to this fascinating inquiry. Some sixteen 
different theories are there passed under 
review. Six of these are European theories, 
four African, and six Asiatic. Able writers 
are there cited in support of each of the 
sixteen theories, some of which become in- 
tensely interesting when Old Testament his- 
tory is quoted to sustain the argument. 
This is especially the case when King Solo- 
mon and his father's tried friend, Hiram, 
are summoned by an old Spanish author to 
tell how they sent to Mexico to seek ma- 
terial for the building and the beautifying 
of the Temple. 

There is doubtless some element of truth 
in several of the theories advanced. The 
wars of the Tartars drove some races from 
their Oriental habitat across Bering's 
Straits or the Pacific Ocean, for they could 
easily sail from island to island, aided by 
trade winds and ocean currents, until they 
reached the American coast. Others doubt' 



Inhabitants and Monuments 17 

less came from the East in trading vessels, 
or perhaps by way of the Atlantis, that 
chain of islands long since supposed to have 
been submerged beneath the waters of the 
Atlantic. Given the fact that one hundred 
and fifty languages are known to have been 
spoken in Mexico, it is clearly evident that 
the early inhabitants did not all come from 
the same country. However, whether thesQ 
primitive people originated in Africa or 
Asia, or proceeded from both continents, 
the fact remains that great empires flour- 
ished here long ages before Columbus or 
Cortes was born and dreamed of discovery 
and conquest. 

Passing from the shadowy to the certain 
periods of history, we hear of the Otomi 
from Central America, the Maya-Quiche 
from Yucatan, and the migratory Nahuas 
from the North, spreading over Mexico. 
Their monumental ruins are mute remind- 
ers of a dim and distant past, of which little 
is really known. Among these are the ruins 
of Uxmal, in the State of Yucatan, quite 
recently explored. Le Plongeon spent 
many years there, and afterward published 
a curious book on Queen Maa and the 



18 Mexico 

Eg>^ptian Sphinx. He submits that the 
Mayas planted the center of civiHzation in 
Mexico, which later spread into India anc^ 
Egypt, and finally into Greece and Western 
Europe. In the State of Chiapas, as well 
as in Guatemala, exist the Palenque ruins, 
which Dupaix contends are older than the 
flood, and Charnay believes they will some 
day decide "the question of American civ- 
ilization." 

The mysterious pyramid of Cholula, near 
the city of Puebla, was brought to the at- 
tention of modern scientists by Humboldt, 
about one hundred years ago. It is an arti- 
ficial mound, probably built for worship. 
Its base is one thousand feet on each side, 
and the apex is about two hundred feet 
square. Quetzalcoatl, the hero of Lew 
Wallace's Fair God, who visited Cholula, 
was believed by some early Mexican writer 
to be none other than the Apostle Saint 
Thomas, who thus introduced Christianity 
on the American continent. 

About twenty-five miles from the City of 
Islexico are the two famous pyramids of 
Teotihuacan — the Pyramid of the Sun and 
the Pyramid of the Moon, both probably 



Inhabitants and Monuments 19 

built for worship. They are perhaps the 
most ancient monuments on the American 
continent. With the buried city lying near 
by, these pyramids will be the Mecca to 
which many an archaeologist will some time 
wend his way, especially when the present 
investigations conducted by the Mexican 
Government, under Professor Leopoldo 
Batres, shall be made public. Dust and 
detritus to a depth of three to four meters 
are being removed from the pyramid slopes, 
revealing the original steps. 

The Mitla ruins in the State of Oaxaca 
witness to palaces and temples whose 
"beauty can be matched only by the monu- 
ments of Greece and Rome." The special 
mystery of these ruins, aside from the ques- 
tion of their origin, is associated with the 
gigantic stones or monoliths which served 
as lintels over the doorways, the immense 
weight and bulk of which have defied the 
ages. They rest unmoved in elevated po- 
sitions, which in these days would require 
all the magic of modern mechanics and en- 
gineering skill to place them. "As in 
Egypt, so here the mystery will never be 
solved." 



20 Mexico 

Xochiacalco, Quemada, Papantla, Mi- 
santla, and other archaeological remains are 
worthy of mention. But for brevity's sake 
we refer the reader to Humboldt, Stephens, 
Dupaix, Brantz Meyer, Kingsborough, 
Charnay, and other well-known authors. 

When the Spanish conquerors came, 
these ruins were so old that Toltecs and 
Aztecs could give but scanty information 
concerning them. Vague traditions were 
current touching those "Giant architects, 
the Shepherd Kings of Egypt," or the other 
mysterious people who came at some re- 
mote period from beyond the wide seas, 
and who left a vast and wonderful, field 
for the traveler, the archaeologist, and the 
historian. Some day these ruins may yield 
up their secret. Meanwhile conjecture is 
allowed free wing in the firmament of the 
prehistoric until, inquiry satisfied and re- 
search rewarded, some intelligent notion 
is formed concerning the ancient Inhabit- 
ants and monuments of Mexico. 



CHAPTER III. 

PRE-CoivONiAiy Dynasties. 

Th]^ millions we would so gladly evan- 
gelize are descendants of the races found 
here by the Spanish conquerors — ^the Tol- 
tecs, Chichimecas, and Aztecs. Remnants 
of other and older families were met. 
When we attempt, however, to trace them, 
we deal only with legendary history and 
with the mysterious and massive ruins that 
refuse to disclose their secrets. During the 
seventh century of the Christian Era the 
Toltecs crossed Bering's Straits. They 
marched by easy stages along the Pacific 
Coast, made temporary stops at several 
places in Mexico, and finally established a 
dynasty in the heart of the country, their 
kingdom lasting some five hundred years* 
Their capital was Tollan, or as it is now 
known, Tula, an old town some fifty miles 
north of the City of Mexico. Ruins of the 
21 



22 Mexico 

ancient capital, which still exist, are visited 
by hundreds of tourists. They were a 
peaceful tribe, devoted to mechanical arts, 
improved agriculture, and worked the pre- 
cious metals, and they so excelled in archi- 
tecture that their name has become a syn» 
onym for architect. This fact bears out 
the belief that many of the monumental 
ruins tell of cities built by the Toltecs. 

During their migrations, which lasted 
one hundred and nineteen years, they con- 
stantly sought to know the will of the 
Supreme Being. They had military lead- 
ers, but God was their great Commander, 
and their chief priest His vicar on earth. 
As they wandered from their native habi- 
tat they relapsed into idolatry more and 
more. They had been but a few years in 
their new home when all the wise men were 
summoned to assist the High Priest in the 
preparation of their ''Book of God." By 
paintings they represented every event in 
history, from the creation to their arrival 
at Tula. In the same way they represented 
religious rites, governmental systems, social 
customs, arts and sciences, astrology, com- 
putation of time, and even prophecies. 



Pre-Colonial Dynasties 23 

Though brave in time of need, they were 
not a warHke people, preferring the culti- 
vation of the fine arts and the pursuit of 
agriculture; thus they bequeathed to pos- 
terity much useful knowledge. 

Four hundred years later another myste- 
rious and nomadic people from the North, 
called the Chichimecas, followed the Tol- 
tecs. They had been their dreaded neigh- 
bors in their distant Eastern home, had 
harassed them frequently in their migra- 
tions, and finally located near the Toltecs 
after they reached Tula. 

The Chichimecas were an inferior race, 
and at first quarrelsome. They interfered 
with internal matters to the extent of im- 
posing one of their princes on the Tolteo 
throne; they also absorbed the language 
and customs, and finally the Empire itself. 
They spread rapidly until they reached the 
Gulf on the east, and the Isthmus of Te- 
huantepec on the south. At times they 
seemed to blend the softer qualities of Tol- 
tec civilization with the barbarous tenden- 
cies inherent to their warlike natures. They 
lived mostly on game, natural fruits and 
roots, and worshiped the Sun. 



24 Mexico 

The Aztecs appeared just as the Chichi- 
mecas succeeded in acquiring a large terri- 
tory and had scattered their princes over 
the country as heads of small kingdoms. 
The Aztecs came by a long and circuitous 
route. A representation of the Deity was 
carried by "the servants of God" in their 
marches; they erected an altar at every 
stopping place besides their tabernaculum, 
somewhat as the children of Israel did in 
the wilderness. 

At last they found in Lake Texcoco "a 
rock in the midst of the waters, from which 
sprang up the Nopal, and in the Nopal an 
eagle holding a serpent in his claws." 
Here, as the legend goes, the High Priest 
had told them to build the permanent 
temple and found the seat of the empire. 
So here Cortes found the Moctezumas in 
all their glory, where stands the present 
City of Mexico. Missionary operations 
have centralized round that scene of rude 
romance and savage splendor hard by the 
forgotten altars of the Sun Worshipers. 

The Aztec dynasty lasted about three 
hundred years. Under the two Mocte- 
zumas it reached its acme of grandeur and 



Pre-Colonial Dynasties 25 

extended in dominion over a territory some 
fifteen hundred miles by six hundred, with 
magnificent highways rivaHng in construc- 
tion the old Roman roads of Italy and 
Brittany. The Moctezumas ruled with rare 
wisdom. They made laws, defined and reg- 
ulated the rights and duties of citizens, and 
preserved social order in a manner that 
indicated endowment with highest legis- 
lative and administrative ability. 

They fostered agriculture and horticul- 
ture to a high degree of success. Scien-^ 
tific irrigation was to them well known. 
On looms of simple construction they made 
cotton cloth and other tissues, some of 
which were of exquisite fineness and often 
interwoven with feathers. Some of their 
garments were truly magnificent. In min- 
ing and metallurgy they were very expert- 
They had a well organized system of 
moneys, weights, and measures. Their 
knowledge of astronomy astonished the 
Europeans. . Their whole political, theo- 
cratic, military, and social economy gave 
evidence of a highly civilized and culti- 
vated people. The stories of their bloody 
rites, as related by Spanish historians or 



26 Mexico 

repeated by Prescott, should be taken with a 
great grain of salt. The state of civiliza- 
tion among them when first known to the 
conquerors is said to have been far superior 
to that of the Spaniards themselves, as first 
known to the Phoenicians, or of the Gauls 
as first known to the Greeks, or of the Ger- 
mans and Britons when first known to the 
Romans. 

The Mexicans, as all the descendants of 
the ancient tribes are henceforth known in 
history, were worthy of a better inherit- 
ance than was brought to them by the 
Spaniards. Had other settlers visited this 
country in the sixteenth century, what a 
different history of this noble people might 
have been written! They recognized the 
one Superior Being as "the invisible, in- 
corporeal, the one God of perfection and 
purity." They sprinkled their infants with 
"holy drops of water," and believed in bap- 
tismal regeneration. The priests of Huit- 
zilopochtli were five thousand in the an- 
cient city, and they were allowed to marry. 
Those in the monasteries led stern con- 
ventual lives, including penance of flagel- 
lation until the blood flowed, and this for 



Pre-Colonial Dynasties 27 

the expiation of their sins. They taught 
three states of future existence: i. Where 
the wicked were to suffer in everlasting* 
darkness for their sins ; 2. Where those 
with no merit other than having a natural 
death were to enjoy a negative existence — 
everlasting sleep ; 3. Where those who died 
in battle or by sacrifice passed with songs 
and danced immediately into the presence 
of the Sun, the highest heaven of all. 

The Great Teocali, or Temple, which re- 
quired generations to build, was completed 
six years before Columbus discovered 
America. It covered acres of ground, and 
was a little city by itself. It sheltered 
priests, priestesses, and a strong military 
garrison. Here, too, was the great sacri- 
ficial stone. Upon the altars of each of 
the many little sanctuaries the fire was 
never allowed to die out. 

If our beloved Church were as careful, 
as a unit, to keep the missionary fire burn- 
ing ever on the hearts of the people, how 
long would it require to lead the world, 
now enwrapt in idolatry and superstition, to 
a knowledge of the Truth? 

Netzahualcoyotl, the King David of 



28 Mexico 

Mexico, who wrote many beautiful poems 
and who erected a temple "to the Unknown 
God," said in what may be regarded as his 
Swan Song, "The things of yesterday are 
no more to-day." True enough, their mag- 
nificent empires passed away, as he said in 
the same farewell song, 'Xike the fearful 
smoke that issued from the throat of Po- 
pocatepetl." The glory indeed departed. 
How and by what cruel hands will be dis- 
closed in the next chapter. 



CHAPTER IV. 
The: Tragedy o^ the: Sixte:e:nth Ce;n- 

TURY. 

The conquest of Mexico has been re- 
lated by some of the mpst eloquent his- 
torians. The story has been told in half 
a dozen modern languages. The volumi- 
nous works of Clavigero, Humboldt, Pres- 
cott, and Bancroft are accessible to all stu- 
dents of missionary enterprise, and the fas- 
cinating tale probably has held spellbound 
many of our readers. Our limited space 
will allow us to tell the story but briefly. 
Cuba was conquered in 151 1. Velazquez, 
the Governor-General, was ambitious to 
verify the predictions of Columbus concern- 
ing further discoveries to the westward. 
Cordova, his first envoy, discovered Yuca- 
tan. Grijalva, nephew to Velazquez, sailed 
in 1 5 17, and discovered the Island of Sac- 
riUcios off Vera Cruz, where the Spaniards 



30 Mexico 

saw the first human sacrifices. They en- 
tered the Panuco River, at whose mouth 
stands the modern coast-city of Tampico, 
and then they returned to Cuba. Enrap- 
tured by these reported discoveries, the 
Governor-General dispatched messengers to 
the King of Spain giving glowing accounts 
and impressing him with the possibility of 
extending his Empire. He asked also for 
a powerful armament for the work of con- 
quest. 

For this he needed a man of ability and 
resolution, but sufficiently tractable to be 
a passive instrument in his own hands. 
Whatever else the Spaniard was, he was 
then jealous and suspicious. He hesitated 
to trust his own nephew. Finally Cortes 
was suggested. He was brave, exceed- 
ingly popular, and was supposed to have 
the requisite fidelity to Velazquez. Besides, 
he was rich, and that would help. Conse- 
quently Hernan Cortes was appointed Cap- 
tain-General. His preparations were has- 
tily made, and his entire fortune was spent 
in military stores and provisions. The 
Governor-General was suspicious of Cortes, 
but he was outwitted. The future con- 



Tragedy of Sixteenth Century 31 

queror and destroyer of ancient civiliza- 
tion set sail from Cuba on the i8th of Feb- 
ruary, 1 5 19. He had eleven small sailing 
vessels and eight hundred and sixty-three 
men all told, including two priests, also 
sixteen horses, ten brass cannon, four small 
cannon, and other smaller weapons peculiar 
to that age. His first landing place was the 
Island of Cosumel, where after ten days' 
stay he reported the conversion (?) of the 
Indians, whose idols he ruthlessly rolled 
down the steps of the great temple. 

On the 4th of March he ascended the 
Tabasco River on the main land, frighten- 
ing the natives with his horse and cannon. 
The next day, with the war-cry of ''Saint 
James and Saint Peter," patron saints of 
Spain and Cortes himself, he proceeded 
with a slaughter of the innocents, over- 
turned their idols, for which he substituted 
pictures of the Virgin, baptized the pris- 
oners, and received a gift of twenty native 
maidens, one of whom, Marina, became his 
paramour. With great self-complacency, 
Cortes reported to His Majesty that if he 
had not converted them all he "had brought 
them so far in the way of salvation as to 



32 Mexico 

desire, or at least not to oppose, the means 
of obtaining it." 

Six weeks later the adventurer reached 
the island off San Juan de Uloa, and landed 
the following day on the main land near 
Vera Cruz. He parleyed a few days with 
the local chief, and for the first time saw 
the picture paintings by which news of his 
arrival was being forwarded to the interior 
of the country. To encourage the artists, 
Cortes displayed his artillery and cavalry 
in great style. He produced the desired 
effect of terror in the minds of all, both on 
the coast and in the interior. By trickery 
and subterfuge he raised a ghost-like super- 
stition in their minds: could this be the 
mysterious Quetzalcoatl, the God of Peace, 
who in the distant past disappeared from 
that very coast, promising some day to re- 
turn and "possess the land?" Their super- 
stitious fears were fully awakened, and this 
fact doubtless had much to do with the 
conquest of the milHons of Mexico by a 
handful of European adventurers. 

The affrighted IMoctezuma, seeing the 
picture representations of the new comers, 
sent them gifts of gold and silver, finely 



Tragedy of Sixteenth Century 33 

wrought cloths and splendid specimens of 
feather work, all hastily dispatched to the 
coast, hoping thus to dissuade the Span- 
iards from their purpose. But this only 
served to whet the appetite of the avari- 
cious Cortes, and confirmed his intention 
to visit the great Emperor of the Mexicans. 
He said he had a "disease of the heart," 
which could be cured by the more abundant 
supply of gold. He broke off all negoti- 
ations with the Governor-General of Cuba, 
opened communication directly with the 
King, overcame by strategy the insurrec- 
tion among his followers, turned his back 
upon the Gulf, and plunged bravely, though 
blindly, into the mainland. 

Ten leagues inland he reached Cempo- 
ala, a rich and beautiful place. There he 
gained the good will of the people, and 
obtained much valuable information con- 
cerning the Aztecs and the country in gen- 
eral. Under the protection of cannon his 
soldiers then treacherously entered the 
temple, cast down the idols, built an altar, 
and set thereon an image of "the Mother 
of God." A second insurrection among his 
followers made him still bolder. Summar- 



34 Mexico 

ily he dispatched the ring leaders, ordered 
his vessels sunk, harangued the people, and 
again the air rent with the cry, "On to 
Mexico!" Considering all the circum- 
stances, this bold act is without a parallel 
in history, not even excepting Julian's ex- 
ploit in burning his fleet after ascending 
the Tigris. 

On the 15th of August, 15 19, Cortes 
began the memorable march over the steep 
mountains. He was accompanied by thir- 
teen hundred allied Cempoalans, whose 
advice he followed in choosing a route 
by way of Tlaxcala. It was hoped that 
the Tlaxcalans, long time enemies of the 
Aztecs, might be secured also as allies. 
In this they were at first sadly disappointed. 
Their determined leader, Xicotencatl, had 
under him as brave an army as history re- 
cords. After fierce engagements, however, 
a treaty of peace was concluded, by which 
the Tlaxcalans became vassals to the King 
of Spain and sworn allies in the campaign, 
against Moctezuma. Human sacrifices 
were prohibited, the idols were cast out of 
the temple, and the whole nation baptized 
into the kingdom. 



Tragedy of Sixteenth Century 35 

But Mexico, with its fabulously reputed 
wealth, was the objective point of the Span- 
iards, so they could not long delay in Tlax- 
cala. Soon they started again, accompanied 
by their new allies. Under pretense of 
friendship, Moctezuma sent an invitation 
to Cortes to visit him, and treacherously 
suggested the route by Cholula as the best. 
Moctezuma hoped his friends, the Cholu- 
lans, would lead the foreigners into a trap 
and massacre every one. The scheme was 
discovered in time; then the missionaries 
(?) from Spain by stratagem seized the 
chiefs of the holy city, and turned loose 
their army upon the affrighted population, 
A wholesale massacre followed, which 
lasted two days. Six thousand people were 
butchered. The temple with its idols, to- 
gether with the priests and their attend- 
ants, who there sought refuge, were totally 
destroyed by fire. On to Mexico! was 
more than ever the cry. Moctezuma again 
fatally mistook the approaching foe, send- 
ing ambassadors with promises of immense 
quantities of gold if the Spaniard would 
advance no further. But that feverish "dis- 
ease of the heart" merely increased in in- 



36 Mexico 

tensity with all these overtures. Cortes 
pressed his toilsome march across the 
mountains between the snow-capped peaks, 
until the ancient and beautiful valley of 
Mexico broke upon his sight in all its 
native loveliness. The white halls of Moc- 
tezuma, "like some Indian empress with her 
coronet of pearls," seemed to repose on the 
bosom of the swaying waters. But immi- 
nent above all was the cypress crowned 
hill of Chapultepec, with its magnificent 
palaces, menageries, aviaries, and amphi- 
theatres. Before the enraptured eyes of 
the Spaniards la}^ the prize — the enchant- 
ing fairyland for which they had ven- 
tured all. 

Moctezuma was filled with increasec-i 
dread as the Spaniards approached. On 
consulting "the gods," however, he decided 
to entice them on and, when secure in the 
city, cut off their retreat, make them pris- 
oners, and sacrifice them on the altars of 
Huitzilopoctli. As King Latinus awaited 
Virgil's hero and his Trojan warriors, while 
he curbed his own people by quoting the 
oracles, so Moctezuma awaited the ap- 
proach of the Spaniards and their allies. 



Tragedy of Sixteenth Century 37 

They entered by the eastern border of the 
beautiful valley until they reached Ixtapal- 
apan. Envoys of the highest rank were 
sent to meet them, at times insisting that 
their entry to the city was an impossibility 
because of the enraged populace, and yet 
that Moctezuma bid them welcome. Re- 
peatedly these envoys, in the name of their 
emperor, presented to the conquerors gifts 
of enormous value, with a plea that they 
leave the country. Neither threats, bribes, 
nor subterfuges prevented their arrival at 
the Aztec capital on the 8th of November, 
1 52 1. It was a tragic moment, the day- 
dawn of dominion over a proud, pathetic 
people. 

At their first meeting, at the edge of the 
city, Cortes placed upon the neck of Mocte- 
zuma a necklace of glass beads, imitations 
of pearls, diamonds, with irridescent balls. 
These trinkets were as false as the verbose 
assurances of friendship which accom- 
panied them. 

In a later interview Moctezuma is said 
to have related to Cortes the legend of 
Quetzalcoatl. He said he believed the 
Spaniards were the predicted white race 



38 Mexico 

coming from the East which would "pos- 
sess the land." Whether this conversation 
occurred or not, this superstitious fear 
doubtless had much to do with the com- 
paratively easy conquest. Several visits 
were exchanged between the Aztec emperor 
and the Spanish general. The latter was 
reproved for suggesting that he be allowed 
to substitute a cross and a picture of the 
Virgin for the idols. Cortes then made a 
dramatic dash, and with sublime audacity 
captured Moctezuma as a prisoner, in the 
midst of his own court. 

For awhile the handful of foreign adven- 
turers ruled the empire through their royal 
prisoner, whose heart was broken. What- 
ever may have been the inward struggle, 
Cortes ruled with a high hand; princes 
were deposed, ambassadors and governors 
of the provinces were seized upon arrival 
and were served as funeral pyres, the Idols 
were cast down, the cross, the Virgin and 
the saints set up In their stead, and their 
ancient temples were rededicated with great 
show and pomp to the worship of "the true 
God," — and all under the persuasive elo- 
quence of the cannon. 



Tragedy of Sixteenth Century 39 

For months Cortes had his hands full. 
The arrival of a Spanish force, sent by 
the Governor-General of Cuba for the pur- 
pose of deposing Cortes, gave him no little 
trotible; but it was soon defeated, and the 
remnant joined the man they had come to 
cast down. While Moctezuma was a pris^ 
oner his people became more restless every 
day, and were watching earnestly for the 
hour to strike their oppressors. The em- 
peror's tragic death while trying to pacify 
the revolting masses only made matters 
much worse. 

By this time Cortes was persuaded that 
he could hold out no longer against such 
odds. A hasty retreat under cover of night 
was decided upon. But the vigilant Mex- 
icans threw themselves upon the retreat- 
ing forces in such superior numbers that 
they were almost annihilated. Three- 
fourths of the Spaniards fell, four thou- 
sand of their allies were killed, wounded, 
or captured, the Spanish cannon and am- 
munition were depleted, the rich treasures 
were left behind, and the remnant of the 
army was ready to rebel. "Sad night" 
history well may call the retreat of Noche 



40 Mexico 

Triste. The retreat continued until the 
Spaniards once more reached Tlaxcala. In 
less than a year, however, Cortes brought 
more men and arms from the coast, trained 
a strong army of alHes, and returned against 
Mexico City. A fleet was constructed and 
launched on Lake Texcoco. After a pro- 
tracted siege Cortes captured the city, Au- 
gust 3, 1 521. In October of the following 
year, despite the attempts of his jealous 
countrymen and their repeated efforts to 
depose him, Cortes was confirmed as Gov- 
ernor-General by Charles V. The cruel 
execution of Guatemotzin, successor and 
nephew of Moctezuma, together with some 
princes of adjoining States, "lest they might 
rebel against the new order of things," is 
one of the darkest pages in the tragedy of 
the sixteenth century, which resulted in 
three hundred years of Spanish rule in 
Mexico. 



CHAPTER V. 

Crusaders and Inquisitors. 

It has been said that the reign of Ferdi- 
nand and Isabel was signalized by four 
great events; viz., the establishment of the 
Inquisition, which occurred in 1481 ; the 
conquest of Granada, the expulsion of the 
Jews, and the discovery of America, which 
three latter events occurred in 1492. The 
first and last named directly relate to Mex- 
ico. From the landing of Columbus on 
American soil to the arrival of Cortes at 
Vera Cruz, nearly thirty years elapsed* 
Ferdinand and Isabel passed off the stage 
in that period, and Charles V, their grand- 
son, came to the Spanish throne. The 
spirit of the Crusaders was then a living 
fire throughout the Peninsula. Long, in- 
deed, before the eight famous crusades of 
the Middle Ages this adventurous spirit 
ran high among this people of mingled 
41 



42 M 



exico 



blood, springing from a greater variety of 
stock than any other European nation, and 
producing "restless and impressionable 
tribes." At a very early day the original 
population was overwhelmed by a great 
Celtic invasion. Then arose the Phoe- 
nicians, who as traders and colonists were 
attracted to this "Tarshish" of the Old 
Testament. There is some evidence of 
Greek settlements followed by Carthagin- 
ians. Some two hundred years later the 
Romans drove out the Carthaginians, sub- 
dued the contending tribes, and made His- 
pania a part of their, proud empire in the 
year 19 B. C. For three centuries this was 
their richest province. 

The Franks invaded Spain in 256 A. D. 
They left but little impression. Early in 
the fifth century the Barbarians perpetrated 
awful cruelties and carnage on Romans and 
natives alike. Then resulted the Goths, 
whose intolerant dominion lasted for three 
centuries. They in turn were conquered 
by the Mohammedan Arabs, or Saracens. 
Next arose the Spanish monarchy. At the 
beginning it was characterized by bitter 
strife between "plundering Barons and the 



Crusaders and Inquisitors 43 

mountain intrenched Goths," or between 
"the infidel" and ''the Christian." This strife 
lasted for centuries, and gave a permanent 
bias to the Spanish character, very much in 
evidence ever since. The Spaniard seems 
to have been launched on the sea of history 
with a racial conviction that the only path 
to wealth was to find some one who had it, 
and then take it from him by fair or foul 
means. In every conquest and in every 
colony this attribute has been character- 
istic of the Spaniard. Many of the early 
kings, like the father of Ferdinand, were 
famous for ferocity and treachery, especi- 
ally "in hunting unhappy heretics like wild 
beasts among the mountains." Naturally 
Ferdinand gladly encouraged the Inqui- 
sition, which was formally constituted by 
a papal bull and issued its first mandate at 
Seville, January 2, 1481. This terrible tri- 
bunal has existed in many Roman Catholic 
countries, but nowhere has it exhibited such 
merciless and ferocious tendencies as in 
Spain. Torquemada was the first and the 
greatest Inquisitor general in human his- 
tory. Four days after the Inquisition was 
proclaimed at Seville, six heretics were 



44 Mexico 

burned at the stake. Seventeen were 
burned alive in March, and before the end 
of the year two hundred and ninety-eight 
had been sacrificed in the autos da fe. 
Even after burial many were tried and con- 
victed, and with a hyena-like ferocity torn 
from the grave and added to the funeral 
piles. Doctor Rule, in his ''History of the 
Inquisition," adds that this pile "was pre- 
pared on a spacious stone scaffold, erected 
in the suburbs of the city, with the statues 
of four prophets attached to the corners, 
to which the unhappy sufferers were bound 
for the sacrifice, and which the zvorthy 
curate of Los Palacious celebrates with 
much complacency as the spot "where here- 
tics were burnt and ought to hum as long 
as they can he found." The greedy arms 
of this diabolical institution reached to the 
confines of the kingdom, and embraced peo- 
ple of both sexes and of every social class, 
high and low. Attempts at resistance were 
futile, for Ferdinand aided the agents of 
the "Holy Office" with the iron hand of 
military power. At times the most unsus- 
pecting and innocent victim would be met 
on the public way or in the act of entering 



Crusaders and Inquisitors 45 

his own home by a representative of the 
Inquisition, who would give the dreaded 
but well known sign. The one thus sum- 
moned as if hypnotized would without 
question, or without the chance of a part- 
ing, word with his loved ones, follow the 
officer, and would vanish from among the 
living as though swallowed up by the earth. 

The proceedings of the Inquisition were 
always conducted in profound secrecy. 
The accused was never faced with the ac- 
cusers. Witnesses were not allowed to 
communicate with or be known to each 
other. The charge was never made known 
to the prisoner, to whom cruel torture was 
often applied in order to exact confession 
or information. Perhaps other members of 
his family were at the same time in adjoin- 
ing dungeons enduring like cruelties. But 
of each other's fate they would know abso- 
lutely nothing until they met on the gal- 
lows or at the stake. 

No institution on earth was more perfect 
in its operations than was the Inquisition. 
Every member of the Roman Catholic 
Church was under the strictest obligation 
to report everything he might see or hear 



46 Mexico 

that "seemed contrary to the faith." Serv- 
ant and master, brother and sister, parent 
and child, husband and wife, were all spies 
on each other. Any one failing to confess 
at stated times was a "suspect." The evi- 
dence of the blackest criminal known to 
civil law was accepted against a "heretic." 
The penalties were confiscation, penance, 
imprisonment, infamy, and death. Llor- 
ente. Secretary of the Tribunal of Madrid 
from 1790 to 1792, admits the number of 
victims during Torquemada's eighteen 
years of rule "as 10,220 burnt, 6,860 con- 
demned and burnt in effigy as absent or 
dead, and 97,321 'reconciled' subject to 
penalties less than that of death," an aver- 
age of 5,800 sufferers each year in a single 
nation, in the name of "Our Holy Relig- 
ion." But to no other nation in all the wide 
world does this inquisitor's honor belong. 

And this was Spain, with the spirit of 
the Crusaders and wickedly cruel with 
its awful Inquisition. Spain had thus a 
delight for cruelty when Cortes landed on 
the shores of Mexico. 

The terrible Alva, emissary of King 
Philip, boasted that he had executed 



Crusaders and Inquisitors 47 

18,600 in the Netherlands, besides all who 
perished by battle and massacre. The good 
Bishop Las Casas, writing twelve years 
after the Spanish Crusaders and Inquis- 
itors had arrived in the West Indies, says 
"several hundred thousand of its native 
inhabitants had perished, miserable victims 
of the grasping avarice of the white men." 
These Crusaders and Inquisitors did even 
darker deeds in Peru. They seized the Em- 
peror, or Inca, extorted his treasures as 
ransom, burnt the royal captive at the stake, 
stripped his young and beautiful wife, 
bound her thus to a tree, scourged her 
with rods, and then shot her to death with 
arrows. 

In the Philippines they ruled for three 
hundred and fifty years with an adminis- 
tration "rotten from skin to core," enrich- 
ing themselves and impoverishing the na- 
tives. 

Still nearer than all these was the story 
of the wild Crusader and cruel Inquisitor 
in Cuba, from the time of the first Gov- 
ernor-General down to General Weyler, 
under whose administration nearly half a 
million natives died of starvation, while to 



48 Mexico 

a newspaper reporter in our own day he 
declared that he thought himself "merci- 
ful" 

These were the people, ripe in their de- 
light of cruelty, who landed as Crusaders 
and Inquisitors on the shores of Mexico in 
1 52 1, under the leadership of Cortes, as 
''defensores iidei" 



CHAPTER VI. 
The: PrKy oi^ Prie:sts and Vice^roys. 

At that time the cry, "In hoc signo 
vinces" meant something. With the Span- 
ish Roman Catholic that cry would rally 
an army for conquest and devastation, 
burning cities and obliterating nations. 
Under that enthusiasm, aggression, and in- 
humanity were sanctioned and had play in 
Mexico. 

For three hundred years priest and vice- 
roy ruled jointly, both claiming to repre- 
sent the Roman Catholic Church. The 
black record of Spain on this continent can 
never be forgotten. Nor can it be for- 
gotten that all her atrocities were consum- 
mated with apostolic sanction. It was the 
missionary spirit of that age and that peo- 
ple. It was the Church militant, rather 
than its merciful Founder, He who ever 
"went about doing good." 
4 49 



50 Mexico 

Had another race come here in the true 
spirit of God's first Great Missionary, how 
different would have been the results to 
this fair land and the noble Aztecs. We 
venture the assertion that had the Bible, 
translated into Spanish in 1270, been al- 
lowed from that day on free circulation in 
Spain, instead of being chained in convents, 
its benign teachings would have entered 
the lives of the people, and not only Mexico-, 
but every other country upon which Spain 
laid its blighting hand, through those tragic 
centuries would have been immeasurably 
improved, and the Mother Country would 
have written some of the most glowing 
chapters of all human history. 

Pope Alexander VI, himself a Spaniard, 
had the day-dream to convey to their Cath- 
olic majesties of Spain and Portugal, the 
entire American continent from the pole 
to the cape. Consequently priests and vice- 
roys regarded Mexico as their legitimate 
inheritance. Its people were to be con- 
verted into Christians by the aid of the 
military arm. The material cross was to 
substitute the pagan idols. In most cases 
it became only an affix. Hence to this day 



Prey of Priests and Viceroys 51 

the evidences of an amalgamation of Chris- 
tian rites with pagan ceremonies. The 
Church began these compromises with 
paganism upon the collapse of the Roman 
Empire in the fifth century, and has kept 
them up ever since. In Mexico she did 
only what she had done before. Consider- 
ing the character of the priests and the 
viceroys of Colonial times, the extremes 
reached need not surprise the student of 
history. 

So we find the first conquerors a real 
military church — every soldier believing 
himself an apostle, bound to convert as well 
as conquer. No matter if himself he were 
licentious, covetous, and bloodthirsty, doing 
all in the name of the "holy religion," 
"every sin would be atoned by so good 
work." 

The viceroys, with rare exceptions, such 
as Count Revillagigedo, Velasco, and a few 
others, and a vast majority of the clergy, 
excepting truly noble men like Las Casas, 
Gante, San Miguel, Motolinia, and a lim- 
ited number of the order, have well merited 
the verdict of history that they were ava- 
ricious, audacious, and violent. 



52 Mexico 

Immediately after the conquest a great 
number of priests and monks crossed the 
Atlantic to instruct the nation so recently 
"converted." These readily conjoined with 
the viceroys in ruling, as also in oppress- 
ing. Pope Julius II in 1508 had delegated 
to the Catholic kings the government of the 
Church in all Spanish foreign possessions. 
Therefore bishops were appointed by the 
crown. The Council of the Indies, which 
had been created at Madrid, was absolute 
in all religious and civil matters, even with 
power to oppose or reject all papal bulls 
and briefs. In turn the Colonies were 
obliged to remit all their appeals to the 
Court of Rome to this Council, which might 
suppress them at will. 

The Pope even granted the honors and 
rights of cardinal to some of the viceroys. 
Thus it will be easy to comprehend how 
priest and viceroy went "hand in hand" in 
the government. The missionary and the 
soldier were one in subduing the land, se- 
curing its treasures, and trying to save the 
souls of those they did not destroy. 

Rarely did the former take the time to 
learn the language, and then patiently ex- 



Prey of Priests and Viceroys 53 

plain the gospel. But aided by the strong 
hand of the latter he proceeded immedi- 
ately to administer the sacraments, and 
whenever he thought it needful punish 
apostates. 

On the other hand, the crown extended 
regal and absolute powers to the viceroys. 
They were authorized to partition the land 
among the soldiery and inaugurate a sys- 
tem of tribute which reached old and young 
alike, from the highest cacique down to the 
children of fourteen tender years. Chil- 
dren living near the mines were compelled 
every three months to pay in a little bell 
full of gold. Others were obliged to fur- 
nish a certain amount of cotton. Then 
came compulsory service for the cultivation 
of the soil — a system of slavery by which 
"the poor Indian" tilled his own God-given 
lands for the benefit of his foreign masters 
from beyond the sea. This he must do a 
certain number of hours per day, after 
which he "should hear mass and be in- 
structed in the faith," and the instructions 
ironically close, they should ''do all these 
things as free "persons/' 

In such cases a regular title was given 



54 Mexico 

the Spaniard for his fifty or more Indians, 
all of whom were encomendado to him, that 
he might ''teach them the things of our 
holy Catholic faith." 

Of the one hundred and seventy viceroys, 
only four were born on American soil. Of 
the six hundred and ten Captain-Generals 
and Governors, only fourteen were not born 
in Spain. The justice dealt out by all 
these functionaries was always such as con- 
querors give to captives, or masters give 
to slaves. The most objectionable features 
of the feudal system of Europe were not 
only put into practice here, but were in- 
tensified and exaggerated. That diabolical 
system of fueros, or privileges, by which 
the clergy, the military, and other favored 
Spaniards were exempt from civil tribun- 
als, has been rightly called "an inextricable 
labyrinth of corruption, bribery, intrigue, 
delay, denial of justice, and outrage." 

Natives were given no voice, direct or 
indirect, in any department of government. 
Taxes for the crown and tithes for the 
Church were omnipresent, and so far as 
the natives could see were eternal. Com- 
merce and industry were restricted most 



Prey of Priests and Viceroys 55 

unreasonably. Under penalty of death the 
natives were not allowed to trade with any 
but Spaniards. Anything which the Mother 
Country could produce should not be raised 
in Mexico. All merchandise passing from 
one province to another was subject to ad- 
ditional tax. 

One-fifth of all the gold and silver was 
for the king, and he monopolized trade in 
tobacco, salt, etc. He openly sold all offices, 
civil and ecclesiastical. Then came the 
onerous stamp act and the poll tax. All 
religious rites were excessively taxed. The 
very forms and ceremonies by which the 
Spaniards were supposed to be leading the 
people to a knowledge of Christianity were 
taxed by the State in addition to fees paid 
to the priests. 

The exactions of the clergy were carried 
to great extremes. Not only did they levy 
a tariff for the seven so-called sacraments, 
but all kinds of licenses for sin were sold 
to the new converts. For example, a per- 
son who had stolen goods might be re- 
lieved from the obligation of returning the 
goods by buying a license from the priest^ 
a so-called ''Bull of composition/' The 



56 Mexico 

price depended upon the value of the stolen 
goods. However, that the stealing of the 
poor native might not be too excessive, it 
was stipulated that the same person could 
not buy more than fifty of these licenses 
in one year. Think of it! The poor half- 
tutored convert was informed in the name 
of "the holy religion" that the Church 
would wink at about one theft per week 
if only he paid for it in the way prescribed. 
Such was the morality of Spanish Chris- 
tianity! As the Church obtained its pre- 
rogatives and appointments from the king, 
all revenues not squandered reverted to 
him, and the priests were the royal col- 
lecting agents of this spiritual (?) rev- 
enue. 

Not only objects of luxury and comfort, 
and artificial and ornamental productions, 
but the prime necessities of life were sub- 
ject to tithes, and every sacrament had its 
price. Consequently the accumulation of 
wealth by the clergy was enormous. 
Churches, chapels, convents, and monas- 
teries were erected everywhere, and some 
of the latter acquired immense land rights. 
The monks and nuns of Mexico City at one 



Prey of Priests and Viceroys 57 

time owned three-fourths of the private 
houses, and had proportionate holdings 
throughout the country. Cruelty and ra- 
pacity fed like twin vultures on the vitals 
of the race. So cruel were the "Conquis- 
tadores" that whereas in 1521 Mexico City 
had a population of 300,000 Aztecs, in 
1600 that city had 8,000 natives and 7,000 
Spaniards. So rapacious was the Spanish 
priesthood, that even in 1850, on the eve 
of the promulgation of the Laws of Re- 
form, the Church was said to possess real 
property to the value of $300,000,000, de- 
riving therefrom an annual revenue of 
$30,000,000. 

In the course of time we see less than 
half a million foreigners ruling some ten 
million Mexicans, with a despotism such 
as high heaven never looked upon save 
where the Spanish race enacted the same 
cruelties in other lands. 

In a word, the Mexican could have no 
part in making or executing his own laws. 
He must endure most exorbitant taxation, 
must be restricted in his social intercourse, 
must submit to have his trade tyranically 
interdicted, must quietly suffer the suppres- 



58 Mexico 

sion of his industries, purchase goods from 
the hated foreigner, see his would-be-relig- 
ious teacher living like lord, treating him 
as a slave, and laying upon his tired back 
"burdens grievous to be borne." 

Can we wonder that the Mexican grew 
weary of the yoke? 



CHAPTER VII. 

LlBE^RATORS AND RlJI^ORMERS. 

For three weary centuries this double 
yoke galled the Mexican people. At last 
the hour came when they cried out against 
their cruel wrongs. Against what did they 
cry ? Against the very same wrongs which 
oppressed the Mother Country. At that 
same time there existed in Spain a very 
strange blending of political and ecclesi- 
astical despotism and of the Napoleonic 
intervention, with liberal republican prin- 
ciples. 

Against the same wrongs the French 
people cried out during the Revolution of 
1789, when those three mighty pillars of 
the Constitution were erected — ^Liberty, 
Frati^rnity, Equality ! Against the same 
wrongs our own Nation cried out in 1776, 
when they pledged to each other *'life, for- 
tune, and sacred honor/' and sent out to 
59 



60 M 



exico 



the whole world that eternal declaration. 
"AH men are created equal ; and are en- 
dowed by their Creator with certain in- 
alienable rights ; that among these are life, 
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," a 
declaration which still pulsates around the 
globe like an electric shock from the bat- 
tery of life. 

Against the same wrongs our fathers 
cried during the great English revolutions 
of 1640 and 1688. In the first case that 
grand Magna Charta, which had been ex- 
torted from King John in the thirteenth 
century, was rescued from the battle ground 
of four hundred years, and firmly implanted 
as the Constitution of a free and liberty- 
loving people, a constitution which, as 
Macaulay says, was "a model for all the 
other free Constitutions of the world." In 
the second case ''the noble party of patriots 
and martyrs of liberty" maintained and de- 
termined the struggle for the inalienable 
civil and religious rights of man. 

In a word, the Mexicans pleaded for 
their God-given birthright, which no one in 
these days would think of refusing them. 
It would be simple apostasy for any son of 



Liberators and Reformers 61 

Spanish, French, American, or English Hb- 
erty to look down upon the long continued 
but noble struggle of Mexican patriots. 

Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla was the first 
of a line of valiant men and women who 
raised this cry for the independence of 
Mexico. He was the first great liberator. 
He was born in Michoacan in 1753. After 
graduating from the College of Saint Nich- 
olas, Morelia, Miguel entered the Univer- 
sity in Mexico City, the oldest university 
on the American continent, from which he 
graduated with special honors. On return- 
ing to his native State he was called to the 
chair of Latin, Philosophy, and Theology 
in his Alma Mater. When thirty-nine years 
of age he became curate in Colima, later 
in San Felipe, and finally, in 1803, in Do- 
lores, State of Guanajuato. The latter 
place soon after became the cradle of Mex- 
ican independence. 

Here the good man took an interest in 
everything which concerned the welfare 
of his flock. One of the most recent and 
best histories of Mexico truthfully says 
that "he was a wise man." Before he was 
crowned with the immortal laurels of a 



62 Mexico 

hero and a martyr, as parish priest he con- 
tinued his studious habits, preached to his 
parishioners, taught them trades, planted 
vineyards, cultivated mulberry-trees, estab- 
lished silk factories and music schools. 

This was the man, under God, called to 
be the Father of independence. He worked 
and prayed for the larger parish — his na- 
tive land. In Queretaro there was a circle 
of patriots, meeting under the guise of a 
literary academy, in harmony with Hidal- 
go's plans. 

The venerable curate was one day sur- 
prised by a visit from agents of the vice- 
roy, who ruthlessly cut down his mulberry- 
trees, destroyed his vineyards, and bruskly 
informed him that all such things were cal- 
culated to interfere with the revenue of the 
home country. About the same time the 
Queretaro Circle had been discovered by 
the Spanish emissaries, and all its mem- 
bers reduced to prison. Among these was 
Mrs. Josefa Dominguez, who managed to 
communicate orders to a trusted servant, 
through the keyhole of her dungeon door, 
to hurry away across the country, where 
he was to advise Aldama, who in turn car- 



Liberators and Reformers 63 

ricd many more leagues to Hidalgo the 
news that the plans had been made known 
to the viceroy. On the receipt of this warn- 
ing, near the hour of midnight the vener- 
able curate went into his church, had his 
parishioners called from their slumbers by 
the ringing of the bells, and into their as- 
tonished but ready ears poured his plan of 
independence. His impassioned but tender 
appeal ended with the cry of ''Long live 
Mexico r a cry which was immediately 
taken up by the flock and carried with in- 
creasing enthusiasm to other towns and 
other States. It found an echo in every 
heart of a downtrodden race. Thousands 
flew to arms. Though at first undisciplined 
and without munitions of war, they were 
fired and sustained by love of liberty and 
right. 

Almost at the outset their venerated 
leader was captured, degraded from the 
priesthood, and then shot. But now as 
always the martyr's blood was not shed in 
vain, and soon the entire nation was 
aroused. Against great odds, but with ever 
increasing courage, they pushed the hard 
struggle through eleven years — a courage 



64 Mexico 

worthy of the lovers and martyrs of liberty 
in any age or land. Part of the year they 
would till the soil, and the rest of the year 
they would swell the ranks of the army. 
Now they scattered for the protection and 
provision of their families, and again they 
returned to rally round the flag. 

For the most part they equipped and sup- 
ported themselves. Their women acted as 
quartermasters, purveyors, and nurses. No 
red cross organization ever excelled them 
in devotion. At last God in heaven crowned 
their prolonged sacrifices, and in 1821 Mex- 
ico became free from Spanish tyranny and 
despotism — just three hundred years after 
the arrival of Cortes. 

Only a little while before Hidalgo was 
captured he received a letter from the vice- 
roy offering pardon in case he and his men 
would lay down their arms. To this offer 
the intrepid leader replied, *'We will not 
lay down our arms till we have wrested the 
jewel of liberty from the hands of the op- 
pressors." Nor did they. Though many 
leaders fell and thousands from the ranks 
were sacrificed, others quickly took their 
places, bent on wresting that precious 



Liberators and Reformers 65 

"jewel." When in 1821 they came where 
they could view the promised land, they 
knew that the struggle for real national life 
was only fairly begun. 

In our time has there not been too much 
flippant talk about revolutions in Mexico 
and all Latin America? We should never 
forget how many revolutions it has taken 
to make the best nations of the world. 
England's struggle dragged through four 
bloody centuries. National unrest will con- 
tinue as long as wrong exists. Wrongs 
which the Spanish crown and Church had 
implanted during three centuries of rule 
were not easily uprooted. 

The power of king-craft was broken, but 
the priest-craft remained. The higher 
clergy, as in Colombia and Peru, did not 
sympathize with the course of independ- 
ence. The "Holy Office" directed its pow- 
erful influence against the liberators. 

A new viceroy, when about half way up 
from the coast on his way to the capital, 
was induced to sign a treaty of peace in 
the month of August, 1821. Then fol- 
lowed the ephemeral empire of Iturbide. 
In 1823 a National Congress was convoked, 
5 



66 Mexico 

and in 1824 it adopted a Constitution based 
upon that of the United States. But the 
Church party did not Hke it, and a series 
of revolutions, which lasted some ten years, 
brought about its overthrow. From this on 
occurred frequent changes in the form and 
personnel of the government. 

In 1829 Spain made a futile effort to re- 
capture the country. The death of Ferdi- 
nand VII brought about a change in senti- 
ment, and in December of that year the 
crown gave its unqualified recognition to 
Mexico's independence. Before long the 
astute, cunning, and unprincipled Santa 
Ana came on the scene. He was in turn 
em.peror, "turbulent dictator," five times 
president, and several times in foreign ex- 
ile. He began as a professed liberal, but 
ended as a reactionary leader for the 
Church — the Church which would use any 
leader by whom she might increase her 
wealth and her power. 

The real patriots were the liberals, and 
they continued to gain strength with every 
new struggle, while the unpatriotic con- 
duct of the Church leaders caused them 
to lose prestige. Let it be remembered 



Liberators and Reformers 67 

that in every foreign war which Mexico 
has had; namely, with Spain in 1829, with 
France in 1838, with the United States in 
1846, and again with France in 1862-67, 
the clergy were against their own govern- 
ment. This disgraceful fact has in it a 
lesson for every nation in which the Roman 
Catholic Church is to-day carrying on its 
machinations. 

In the meantime the Liberal party, which 
stood for patriotism and human rights, was 
gathering strength. At last, when the 
Church party had filled up its measure of 
abuses, the cry again went forth against 
tyranny and oppression. These were the 
very wrongs which caused the second revo- 
lution of the seventeenth century in Eng- 
land. These were the same against which 
Mazzini, Garibaldi, and Victor Emmanuel 
resented in more recent times, and in the 
very habitat of the Roman hierarchy — and 
continued to protest till they had delivered 
their people from papal bondage and Italy 
stood before the world a free, happy, and 
united people. 

For the gigantic task here in Mexico 
God raised up Benito Juarez, Comonfort, 



68 Mexico 

and other noble reformers, who proved 
themselves to be worthy successors of Hi- 
dalgo, Allende, and Bravo, and other most 
valiant liberators of their country. 

Under their leadership from the Consti- 
tution of 1824 they evolved and perfected 
the Constitution of 1857, under whose wise 
and broad provisions Church and State 
were forever separated, liberty of worship 
and of press were guaranteed, slaves freed 
and protected, all 'fueros abolished. Church 
property nationalized, the military subordi- 
nated to the civil power, commercial treaties 
and colonization authorized, and foreign en- 
terprises encouraged. 

The Ship of State splendidly liberated 
moved out on the ocean of reform with an 
apparently bright future. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The: Intrigue: and Its Faii^ure:. 

The: London Quarterly Review some 
years since said : ''The countries which long 
formed the transatlantic Empire of Spain 
have, from the day in which she first 
planted her foot in the new world to the 
present time, never ceased to present the 
most painful contrast between the benev- 
olent dispositions of Providence for the 
happiness of His creatures and the power 
of man to counteract them." This is espe- 
cially true of Mexico. The Spaniard might 
have made a paradise of Mexico, so marvel- 
ously endowed with climate, soil, and min- 
erals. But "the dispositions of Providence" 
were thwarted by the avarice and the greed 
of the conquerors. After years of brave 
struggle Mexico threw off the foreign yoke, 
and seemed to be coming into her God- 
given inheritance as a free and happy na- 
69 



70 Mexico 

tion, but ''the power of man to counteract" 
was again in evidence. 

This time also it was the Church, for, as 
Matias Romero says, "The Church party 
was the promoter and supporter of the In- 
tervention." 

Pope Pius IX and Louis Napoleon made 
strange ''companions in arms." But Pope 
Alexander VI had claimed sway over the 
entire American continent, from the pole 
to the cape, and long before his day Rome 
had dreamed of that stupendous scheme of 
Universal Empire with one "Universal 
Bishop," "Vicar of Christ," or "Vice-regent 
of the Most High," temporal and spiritual 
Monarch of all the earth, "His Holiness 
the Pope." Napoleon, that "destroyer of 
the Second Republic," as Victor Hugo 
called him, violator of the solemn promises 
which he publicly and on his honor made 
for the defense of that Republic, he who 
disregarded every oath, trampled upon 
sacred rights, dissolved at will legislative 
assemblies and proscribed its members, ex- 
pelled the supreme court, raked Paris with 
grape shot, terrorized the nation, "made 
the sword of France a gag in the mouth 



The Intrigue and Its Failure 71 

of liberty," cruelly exiled fifty thousand 
of his fellow citizens to the barren shores 
of Africa, "placed in all souls grief and on 
all foreheads blushes," was nevertheless "a 
favorite son of the Church." 

This man who made that awful record 
"of highest treason against a whole na- 
tion," dreamed not only of a continental, 
but of a transatlantic empire, and became 
a joint conspirator with Pius IX. Poor 
Mexico was to be their first prey, and the 
third party to the intrigue was the Church 
in Mexico. Almonte was their ambassador, 
and he needed but little time, after reach- 
ing France, to impress Napoleon that the 
time was ripe, that the liberal party was 
"without character," and that the mass of 
Mexicans desired a monarchy which should 
be in accord with Rome. 

As the result of our Civil War both 
Napoleon and the Pope fondly hoped for 
the success of the Confederacy, and the 
latter even went so far as to publicly recog- 
nize President Jeff Davis. 

The scheme briefly sketched was this: 
an empire in Mexico under Papal influ- 
ence, the United States rent in twain, the 



72 Mexico 

Southern Confederacy friendly to Rome 
with a restored slavery, and ultimately with 
Mexico to form one great Roman Catholic 
monarchy. Such an empire, with its mil- 
lions of Romanists constantly reinforced 
by an ever-increasing flow of immigration 
from Southern Europe, would soon be able 
to bring about the doom of freedom and 
republican governments on the entire Amer- 
ican continent. 

For this miserable plot Napoleon and the 
Pope counted upon more or less backing 
from every Roman Catholic State in Eu- 
rope, and indeed for awhile even England 
was ''in the net." As soon, however, as 
England's representatives discovered the 
real nature of the project she washed her 
hands of the whole affair, as did Spain a 
little later. How miserably the whole 
scheme failed is a matter of history. 

The unfortunate Maximilian, of the 
House of Hapsburg, and the ambitious Car- 
lota, Princess of Belgium and would-be 
empress, accepted the proffered crown, re- 
paired to Rome for, the Papal blessing, and 
then set sail for Mexico, and did so in 
the face of earnest protests on the part of 



The Intrigue and Its Failure 73 

Mexico's special embassy in Europe for 
the purpose. 

These young princes were deluded with 
the dream that they were divinely commis- 
sioned to establish an American empire, 
"destroy the dragon of democracy and es- 
tablish the true Church, the divine right." 
For this purpose French and Austrian 
troops preceded them under the pretext of 
collecting loans, much of which were ex- 
aggerated or fraudulent. 

The Mexican army was surprised and 
beaten back. Puebla fell into the hands of 
the invaders, and finally President Juarez 
and his Cabinet were obliged to leave the 
National Capital. Archbishop Labastida 
proved traitor to his country, gave a royal 
welcome to Maximilian and Carlota, and 
had them crowned in the cathedral with a 
great display of pomp. Thus was launched 
the "model Romish State" on the Amer- 
ican continent — the beginning of larger de- 
signs. It was Abbe Domenech who had 
declared that the Monroe Doctrine must be 
overthrown and the Latin race given a 
career in America ; then "within ten years," 
he adds, "the United States will declare a 



74 Mexico 

dictatorship.'' But all this was man trying 
*'to counteract the benevolent dispositions 
of Providence." The collapse of the South- 
ern Confederacy was the death knell to 
the empire and the entire Napoleonic-Papal 
plot. In December, 1865, Secretary Seward 
sent a brief, energetic note to the French 
Court, pointedly but politely stating the 
American view concerning the attempt to 
plant European institutions on this conti- 
nent, and expressing the hope that "within 
some convenient and reasonable time the 
French troops might be withdrawn." The 
suggestion was understood, and speedily 
acted upon. Thus in about three years 
Maximilian, in spite of European promises 
and the blessings of an infallible ( ?) Pope, 
found himself without an army. He was 
not slow to recognize the critical situation, 
and though thoroughly humiliated he 
**threw up the job," and started for his 
native land. He had gone about two-thirds 
of the way toward the port of Vera Cruz, 
where lay in waiting to do his bidding the 
very vessel which had brought him across 
the Atlantic, when he was overtaken by an 
emissary of the archbishop offering him 



The Intrigue and Its Failur 75 

a strong native army, to which Mr. Seward 
could not object, if he would return and 
prop up the tottering cause. Thus for the 
second time the head of the Mexican 
Church betrayed his country. 

Maximilian returned, but only to find 
that the archbishop could not keep his 
promise, for the liberal forces had gath- 
ered such strength as to indicate the com- 
plete doom of the empire, and possibly the 
prince's own life. What could be done? 
Passionate appeals to Europe seemed like 
calling to the waves of a boisterous sea. 
Then in despair he said, "Shall I go or send 
Carlota to exact in person from Napoleon 
the fulfillment of his promises, or obtain 
from the Pope some satisfaction in lieu 
of infallible though barren blessing?" 
From an eyewitness to the last hours these 
two unfortunate princes spent together in 
the Castle of Chapultepec we have been 
assured that the struggle was heart-rend- 
ing. At midnight on that memorable oc- 
casion Carlota set out for Europe, leaving 
behind as sad a husband as ever lived. 
Her reception yonder was cold in the ex- 
treme. No royal welcome at the landing, 



76 Mexico 

and nearly two days in Paris before she 
was called to the palace. When at last 
she faced Napoleon and Eugenie, she was 
bitterly disappointed and collapsed. Later 
she rallied and made her way to Rome. 
Here still keener disappointment awaited 
her, and after a worse collapse she was 
carried from the Vatican, never to recover 
her mental poise. In old age she lingers 
at Miramar tmder the delusion that she 
is still an empress, and vainly waiting and 
calling for "Max." 

In the meantime the situation of her hus- 
band grew desperate. In February, 1867, 
he left the City of Mexico for the second 
time, and reached Queretaro, which city 
was as yet in the hands of the imperialists. 
Soon after he was captured, condemned by 
laws he himself had enacted, and on the 
19th of the following June was executed. 
Thus ended not only the so-called French 
Intervention, but the last attempt of Eu- 
ropean Powers to plant monarchical insti- 
tutions on American soil. 

The fate of Maximilian had often been 
misunderstood abroad. But from a Mex- 
ican standpoint it was a political necessity. 



The Intrigue and Its Failure 77 

His own "black decree" of October 2, 1866, 
ordered all Mexicans found fighting for 
their country to be shot without the for- 
malities of a trial. Had he been pardoned 
at Queretaro, his person or his possible heir 
might become the center of conspiracies 
that any European influence wished to con- 
coct in the future. Besides the Mexican 
authorities believed that Europe would re- 
gard his pardon as instigated by fear, and 
consequently an act of weakness on their 
part. So the pleadings of Austria and 
France, seconded by Queen Victoria and 
the Government at Washington, were all 
futile. The misguided prince paid the bit- 
ter penalty, and Europe will never forget 
the lesson. 

The failure of the empire meant the res- 
toration of the republic, and consequently 
the opening of the country to Protestant 
Christianity. The immediate instrument 
under God for all this was Benito Juarez, 
"the little Indian," as he is so frequently 
and affectionately called by his grateful 
countrymen. He was a man of genuine, 
wonderful inflexibility of character, and 
who never for one hour despaired of the 
final triumph of his cause. 



78 Mexico 

Yet those were days which "tried men's 
souls." When upwards of 80,000 French 
soldiers landed on Mexican soil, with aux- 
iliary corps from Austria and Belgium, and 
when all the influence which the old Church 
party could command, both military and 
financial, was against them, as well as that 
of the aristocratic element, many who had 
hoped and prayed for national life and hu- 
man rights began to despair. But Juarez 
never lost courage. His faith was as strong 
as his conviction of his country's rights. 
Neither foreign soldiers nor diplomatic 
pleadings from powerful thrones nor papal 
anathemas ever swerved him an inch from 
his chosen path — a path in which he be- 
lieved himself guided of heaven, and whose 
blessing he frequently invoked. This re- 
markable man was a pure Indian of the 
noble Zapotec race, and was born of humble 
parentage in the State of Oaxaca. At the 
age of twelve he came into the capital of 
that State without means or friends, and 
without even a knowledge of the Spanish. 
Working as a domestic the little fellow 
learned the language, and soon entered the 
seminary or Church school. At nineteen 



The Intrigue and Its Failure 79 

he had finished a course in Latin and phil- 
osophy. Then, after a partial course in 
theology, he entered the institute in order 
to pursue a law course. At twenty-eight 
he was admitted to the bar. 

While still a student he ardently espoused 
the principles of the liberal party, to which 
he remained true in all after life. From 
most humble beginnings he rose to be an 
eminent lawyer, and such a statesman as 
any nation might be proud of. 

He was successively deputy, Secretary 
of State, senator, and governor of his na- 
tive State. Later he was national congress- 
man, Secretary of Justice and of the In- 
terior, Vice-President, and finally Presi- 
dent. In these latter offices he earned the 
title with which he will always be known 
in history; viz., the "Father of Reform." 

"His principal characteristics were his 
profound attachment to liberal principles, 
his clearness of intellect, his remarkable, 
good common sense, his great moral cour- 
age, unimpeachable integrity and honor, 
his ardent patriotism, his tenacity of pur- 
pose, and his devotion to civil govern- 
ment," — just the qualities out of which true 



80 M 



exico 



patriots are made in any land. Castelar 
called him "the savior of the honor of his 
country." Our own W. H. Seward de- 
clared that he was "the greatest man he 
ever met in his life," and when some one 
called his attention to the fact that he him- 
self was the contemporary of Webster, Clay 
and Calhoun, Mr. Seward said that he had 
nothing to retract. Such was the man who 
came to be the standard bearer of the lib- 
eral party, which under God bravely faced 
and defeated the Napoleonic- Papal intrigue 
of the nineteenth century, whose object was 
the Romanizing of the entire American 
continent. 



CHAPTER IX. 
The^ Macedonian Cry. 

In 1865 Abbe Domenech boldly pub- 
lished to the world that "Napoleon's Em- 
pire in Mexico was to he the crowning 
event of the nineteenth century." Had the 
abbe been a true prophet history never 
would have recorded the successful strug- 
gle of Benito Juarez, and this fair and 
favored land would have remained indefi- 
nitely closed to the blessed gospel of the 
Son of God. The events described in the 
eighth chapter prefigured the restoration 
of the republic. In July, 1867, President 
Juarez and his Cabinet re-entered the Na- 
tional Capital. Soon afterwards this heroic 
man was unanimously elected by his grate- 
ful people to another presidential term. 

Had we space at command, it would be 
interesting to dwell upon the revenge Mex- 
ico saw visited upon those who intrigued 
for her humiliation. While slowly but 
6 81 



82 Mexico 

surely building up a republic, destined of 
heaven to be increasingly happy and pros- 
perous, the enjoyment of civil and religious 
liberty, the Mexican people beheld across 
the Atlantic the ripening vengeance which 
the Almighty alone could have wrought 
out. Briefly related, the more important 
facts were as follows : the infallible Roman 
Pontiff was shorn of his temporal power; 
Napoleon, "his eldest son," was completely 
humiliated at Sedan by a Protestant king; 
the French Republic rose from the ruins 
of the empire, firmly established ; Napoleon 
was exiled, and Eugenie, a fugitive on for- 
eign soil, was speedily bereft of her hus- 
band, and later her only son fell on the field 
of battle in distant Africa. One can well 
tremble in the presence of such swift and 
awful retributions. 

In the meantime the liberal party, still 
wisely guided by Juarez, proclaimed anew 
the glorious Constitution of 1857, and pro- 
ceeded to affix certain reform laws which 
they deemed necessary in order to protect 
themselves against future machinations of 
the Jesuits, and also to secure to their peo- 
ple the largest religious as well as civil 



The Macedonian Cry 83 

privileges. The immense Church property 
throughout the country had already been 
confiscated, and the clergy thus shorn of 
one of their means for provoking revolu- 
tions, for many of the church edifices were 
rich in gold, silver, and precious stones. 

But the Jesuits were still here, and might 
again be an element of disturbance. Hence 
for the third time they were expelled from 
the country. In this respect Mexico did 
only what nearly every nation in Christen- 
dom and many pagan countries had been 
compelled to do. History had already re- 
corded seventy-five such expulsions, and 
recently France, for the sixth time, had 
found it necessary to drive this pernicious 
order from her territory. 

Some day the Government of the United 
States will have to face the same question. 
God grant that the day may not be too 
long postponed ! 

Mexico also had reason for including in 
the expulsion all monastic orders, includ- 
ing the Sisters of Charity, on the ground 
that their object here was ''the subjugation 
of our people to a foreign despotism that 
has its seat in Rome." 



84 Mexico 

The situation then in 1873, when the 
Methodist Episcopal Church discovered 
"the open door" and heard the call, was as 
follows : 

1. Church and State had been completely 
divorced, a free constitution adopted, and 
full liberty guaranteed. 

2. The vast ill-gotten property of the 
Church had been confiscated and secular- 
ized, whose enormous revenue so often had 
supported revolutions in the interests of 
despotism. 

3. Liberty of speech, of press, and of 
public worship had been granted. 

4. A system of public schools, such as 
would never have been permitted under the 
priestly regime, existed. The Bible, first 
circulated by colporteurs following in the 
wake of the American army in 1846-47, 
now being distributed by the British and 
Foreign Bible Society broadcast, which 
good work was later energetically prose- 
cuted by the American Bible Society, who 
at the present writing have twenty-five 
agents in the field. 

Such eloquent facts in this erstwhile 
priest-ridden and down-trodden country 



The Macedonian Cry 85 

clearly Indicated a challenge to the 
Evangelical Churches of the United 
States. 

While the country at large was thus 
Providentially opened up, the religious con- 
dition of the people constituted a loud call 
for help. Mexico was conquered three 
hundred and fifty years before by a nom- 
inally Christian nation, who not only with- 
held the Bible from the Mexicans, but also 
from their own people In the home land. 
Boasting of baptisms by the thousands, their 
priests gave comparatively little attention 
to the application of the gospel to the hearts 
and lives of the converts. Hence after 
three and a half centuries of Spanish Ro- 
man Catholicism, Mexico stood before the 
world a stupendous example of lost oppor- 
tunities so far as Christianity was con- 
cerned. Judged by Roman Catholic au- 
thorities themselves, Mexico had not been 
Christianized. 

Madame Calderon de la Borca, a devout 
Catholic, wife of the first Spanish minister 
to the Republic of Mexico, wrote so con- 
vincingly on this point that it Is said that 
her book was taken off the market in Eng- 



B^ Mexico 

land and America by priestly influence. 
Among other things she says: 
' "The cross was planted here in a con- 
genial soil, and, as in pagan East, the stat- 
ues of the divinities frequently did no more 
than change their names from those of 
heathen gods to those of Christian saints, 
and image-worship apparently continued, 
the poor Indian bows before visible repre- 
sentations of saints and virgins as he did 
in former days before the monstrous shapes 
representing the unseen powers of the air, 
the earth, and the water ; but he, it is to be 
feared, lifts his thoughts no higher than 
the rude image which a human hand has 
carved. He kneels before the image of the 
Savior who died for him, before the gra- 
cious form of the Virgin who intercedes 
for him; but he believes there are many 
virgins of various gifts, possessing various 
degrees of miraculous power and different 
degrees of wealth, according to the number 
of the diamonds and pearls with which they 
are endowed — one even who is the rival 
of the other — one who will bring rain when 
there is drought, and one to whom it is 
well to pray in seasons of inundation." 



The Macedonian Cry 87 

Abbe Emanuel Domenech, who certainly 
can not be suspected of being unfavorable 
to his own Church, arraigns that Church 
as follows: 

"The Mexican faith is a dead faith ; the 
abuse of external ceremonies, the facility 
of reconciling the devil with God, the abuse 
of internal exercises of piety, have killed 
the faith in Mexico. . . . The idol- 
atrous character of Mexican Catholicism 
is a fact well known to all travelers. . . . 
The mysteries of the Middle Ages are ut- 
terly undone by the burlesque ceremonies 
of the Mexicans. . . . The Mexican is 
not a Catholic; he is simply a Christian, 
because he has been baptized. I speak of 
the masses, and not of the numerous excep- 
tions to be met with. ... If the Pope 
should abolish all simoniacal livings and 
excommunicate all the priests having con- 
cubines, the Mexican clergy would be re-» 
duced to a very small affair. . . . The 
clergy carry their love of the family to that 
of paternity. In my travels in the interior 
of Mexico many pastors have refused me 
hospitality, in order to prevent my seeing 
their nieces and cousins and their children." 



88 Mexico 

In our own day there came to Me^icts 
a learned missionary from Germany, a di- 
rect envoy from the Pope for special work 
here. We knew him well. He told the 
writer not long since that he was aston- 
ished to find how idolatrous and super- 
stitious his own Church was in Mexico, 
and he then startled us with the following 
confession: ''The Mexicans are not Chris- 
tians; to them the Virgin of Guadalupe 
comes first, Hidalgo second, and Jesus 
Christ third/' He knew also that he was 
making this awful admission to a Prot- 
estant missionary. 

Many other testimonies from the same 
source might be added. Then there is our 
side of the question, (a) The Bible is still 
a prohibited book in Mexico. Within a 
few days we have known it to be burned 
on the streets, and the ashes left on our 
doorsteps, (b) In every Church in the 
land you may see a dead Christ and hear 
but little of the living Christ ; this is simply 
typical of what is offered to these millions, 
(c) In some Churches ancient idols are 
found on so-called Christian altars to this 
day, the only change being that the Indian 



The Macedonian Cry, 89 

idol is called by the name o£ some saint of 
the Catholic calendar, (d) At best it is 
a sacramental Christianity, with penances 
and bodily sufferings offered to that God 
who said of such things, ''I will none of 
them," and who is pleased to accept only 
the offerings and merits of his own Son in 
the sinner's stead. (e) Indulgences are 
still sold publicly, notwithstanding the de- 
nial of certain authors in the North, (f) 
After three and a half centuries of so- 
called Christianity, the ancient idolatrous 
feasts of the Indians are still mixed with 
Romish services, not only in rural districts, 
but within three miles of the capital, and 
in some sections the knowledge of God and 
His Christ is as crude as among the half- 
civilized Africans. Surely, then, here is a 
real call! 

Besides all this there is a significant fact 
not generally known. As the result of 
Bible and tract distribution and the dis- 
satisfaction of many with the old Church, 
little groups of Evangelicals were spring- 
ing up all over the country worshiping in 
a very primitive way. New Testament 
times were re-enacted in scores of places 



90 M 



exico 



by "the Church in the home." In two or 
three of the larger cities confiscated Church 
edifices had been secured, and public serv- 
ices established. At the national cap- 
ital the movement acquired considerable 
strength. A few prominent and worthy 
priests had renounced Romanism and 
joined them — notably Manuel Aguas, 
Agustin Palacios, Francisco Aguilar, and 
others. Realizing their need of outside 
help, they appointed a committee to pro- 
ceed to New York and plead with Evangel- 
ical Churches for such help. It was a gen- 
uine "Macedonian cry." Dr. Henry C. 
Riley, then preaching to Cubans in New 
York City, answered their call. The Amer- 
ican and Foreign Christian Union, and later 
the Episcopal Church, supported him. He 
dreamed of a great National Church. At 
first he did much good, but his dream 
proved unpopular. The work was later 
taken over formally by the Episcopal 
Church, but not till a supreme opportunity 
had been lost. 

Before all this Miss Malinda Rankin, of 
Illinois, had heard the call, and with great 
heroism crossed the Rio Grande and planted 



The Macedonian Cry 91 

a number of small congregations in the vi- 
cinity of Monterey. James Hickly, Thomas 
Westrup, and a few others also responded, 
and planted congregations in the northern 
part of the Republic in the early sixties. 
As these noble toilers grew old or passed 
on to their reward, their flocks were adopted 
by some one of the organized missions, for 
in the early seventies several of the leading 
denominations in the home land had heard 
the call and responded. 

The wonderful development of Mexico 
under the able administration of General 
Porfirio Diaz only emphasizes the call for 
missionary work. He, under God, has given 
thirty years of uninterrupted peace to the 
country. As a result, instead of 567 kilo- 
meters of railway we now have 16,386 kilo- 
meters. Importations have increased from 
eighteen to seventy-five million dollars gold, 
and exportations from twenty-seven to two 
hundred and seven million. Instead of a 
deficit there is an annual surplus, and Mex- 
ican bonds are above par in London. Banks 
are multiplying, mines developing, and fac- 
tories going up all over the land. It is re- 



92 Mexico 

ported that Americans have $750,000,000 
gold invested here. 

The government now spends over $9,- 
000,000 silver annually for education, and 
has three times the number of children en- 
rolled as in 1876. Surely these are "signs 
of the times" we may well consider. 



CHAPTER X. 

Planting the; Mission and Looking 
Forward. 

In a certain sense it was historically sig- 
nificant and singularly coincidental that, 
on the 19th of February, 1873, William 
Butler, the first Superintendent of the Meth- 
odist Missions in Mexico, should enter the 
port of Vera Cruz and, with his family, 
land upon Mexican soil at the very spot 
chosen by Hernan Cortes three hundred 
and fifty years ago. But how vastly dif- 
ferent the mission of William Butler and 
that of the Spanish adventurer! In 1856 
Bishop Simpson had commissioned him 
to the "East Indies" among the Aryan 
race, to lay the foundations of work iden- 
tical to that missionary task undertaken in 
the "West Indies" among the Aztec race. 

Both races alike needed the kindling light 

of a religious conviction deeper than mere 

words or national worship. The trail of 

the serpent polluted the Indias, East and 

93 



94 Mexico 

West. The murderous fanaticism of Jug- 
gernaut, and the fierce and flinty faith in 
Huitzilopochtli, aHke bespoke the deep spir- 
itual need in India and in Mexico. 

Bishop Gilbert Haven preceded Dr. But- 
ler by about two months, chiefly in order 
that the missionary appropriation for 1872 
should not lapse, but be available for prop- 
erty required in the planting of the new 
mission. The bishop was a passenger on 
the first through train of the newly con- 
structed railway between Vera Cruz and 
the capital. That was on Christmas-day. 
On December 26th he drew on the Mis- 
sionary Society for the ten thousand dollars 
needed, and then awaited the arrival of the 
superintendent. 

Together they visited Mexico City, also 
Puebla, then regarded as the Ecclesiastical 
Capital of the country, and later Pachuca, 
one of its greatest mining camps. Two in- 
terested laymen of the North generously 
supplemented the appropriation, and they 
were enabled to secure desirable proper- 
ties in the first two mentioned cities. This 
was done in a manner clearly indicating 
the guiding hand of Providence. The story 



Planting the Mission 95 

of the two acquisitions is thrilHngly told 
in "Mexico in Transition," pubHshed by 
the Methodist Book Concern. 

Dr. Thomas Carter was the next mission- 
ary sent, but he only remained a short time. 
Dr. William Cooper, a Presbyter of the 
Episcopal Church, joined the mission, but 
failing health compelled him to return to 
the States a year later. 

In May, 1874, Rev. C. W. Drees and the 
writer reached Mexico. Dr. Drees now 
honors the Church in South America. Rev. 
S. P. Craver and Rev. S. W. Siberts fol- 
lowed in 1875. 'I'he planting of Methodism 
in Guanajuato is a lasting monument to 
their faith and Christian heroism. Since 
then many other faithful toilers have joined 
the ranks for a shorter or longer period. 

To Miss Mary Hastings and Miss Susan 
M. Warner, who arrived in 1873, belong 
the honor of pioneering the Woman's For- 
eign Missionary Society in Mexico. They, 
assisted by the wives of the early mission- 
aries, laid broad and deep the foundations 
upon which the Misses Loyd, Limberger, 
Purdy, Temple, Bohannon, Hewett, and 
others built magnificently. For the names 



96 Mexico 

of the worthy men and women who made 
possible the present results of Methodism 
in Mexico, refer to the reports of the two 
societies. The Church has sent some of 
its noblest sons and daughters to this field. 
The geography of the mission was wisely 
planned. Strategic centers, such as Mexico 
City, Puebla, Pachuca, Orizaba, Oaxaca, 
Miraflores, Queretaro, Guanajuato, Silao, 
and Leon are now nearly all provided with 
good headquarters. The properties of both 
societies are worth to-day more than a mil- 
lion dollars silver. We are now working 
in the Federal District and in eight Sta4:es 
of the Republic. 

The work made sufficient progress to 
justify the organization of an Annual Con- 
ference in 1885. Bishop Harris presided. 
There are now in the field eleven married 
missionaries, ten missionaries of the Wo- 
man's Society, twenty-nine native minis- 
ters, thirty local preachers regularly em- 
ployed, and some fifty school teachers, a 
number of whom are exhorters. There are 
one hundred and fifty preaching places, 
with over six thousand members and pro- 
bationers. Four thousand three hundred 



Planting the Mission 97 

children were enrolled in the Methodist 
schools this year, and these Mexican schools 
are rapidly winning the confidence of the 
people, and helping to break down fanat- 
icism. The Mexico Methodist Institute is 
located in Puebla. Dr. Valderrama is 
president, and Dr. Borton is dean of the 
Theological Department. The Woman's 
Foreign Missionary Society not only co- 
operates with its excellent schools for girls, 
but supports Bible women in several cities, 
and recently set apart one of their Amer- 
ican ladies. Miss Harriet L. Ayers, for 
evangelistic work in this capital. 

In recent years medical work has been 
regarded as necessary in nominally Chris- 
tian lands. The Presbyterian brethren set 
the example with their success in Zacatecas. 
Our people enlarged upon their plans, when 
in 1890 medical work was opened in Guana- 
juato and Silao. Dr. Salmans was the pio- 
neer in the Methodist medical missionary 
work. He was joined by Dr. Hyde soon 
afterwards. Our hospital and two dispen- 
saries treat thousands annually, many of 
whom would not come under gospel influ- 
ence in any other way. The wife of Mis- 
7 



98 Mexico 

sionary Cartwright in Leon is a physician, 
and unaided by direct missionary appropri- 
ations she reaches many others. Thus in 
three cities the "healing art" opens the way 
more fully to carry out the glorious com- 
mission which our Lord delivered to "the 
Seventy" and to their successors. 

Next to evangelistic work the press is 
our most important agency; indeed, in 
many cases our tracts, papers, and books 
go where no living missionary could go. 
Hundreds of times they have been a real 
"John the Baptist." Nearly every congre- 
gation in the country can trace its origin 
to a copy of the Bible, a New Testament, a 
tract, a paper, or a book left by some one, 
or sent through the mail to that place. An- 
nually we send forth from four to five mil- 
lion pages of saving literature. In 1876 
William Butler procured the money, by 
personal solicitation, for the establishment 
of our publishing-house. Rev. J. P. Hauser, 
recently appointed agent, is the first mis- 
sionary to devote his entire time to this de- 
partment of the work. 

God raised up from among the Mexicans 
some splendid workers — Palacios, Tovar, 



Planting the Mission 99 

Gamboa, Loza, Euroza, Valderrama, and 
others — who would be a credit to the 
Church in any land. Upon them especially 
depends, under God, the redemption of 
Mexico. One of the most encouraging 
"signs of the times" is that men like Za- 
pata, Chagoyan, and Mendoza are devel- 
oping into earnest and successful evangel- 
ists. As we write these lines a gracious 
revival is in progress at this capital, con- 
ducted almost exclusively by native pastors. 
Each morning they meet for prayer and 
consultation, while every evening large con- 
gregations gather, and souls are being saved 
daily. Similar notices reach us from other 
places. There is "a moving among the 
mulberry trees." The future is full of 
radiant promise. We are working for a 
noble race and inspired with a glorious 
aim. 

Our fifth chapter revealed one side in 
the character of the Spanish conquerors. 
But there is another side. The perpetrators 
of the awful deeds there mentioned were 
born and died without a true knowledge 
of the gospel. But the victims of their 
cruelty, numbered by thousands, had 

L or n„ 



100 Mexico 

enough of the Hfe of heaven in their souls 
to bear their sufferings with marvelous 
heroism. Many of them were truly noble 
characters. 

The fall of the Aztec Empire presents a 
picture of heroism worthy to be written 
in letters of gold "with the point of a dia- 
mond and the hand of an angel." Guate- 
motzin, the last emperor of the Aztecs, had 
fallen into the hands of gold-thirsty "con- 
quistadores." Having failed in every other 
effort to extort from him the whereabouts 
of the famous hidden treasures of Mocte- 
zuma II, they bound the royal prisoner 
hand and foot, laid him on stone slabs, and 
hung his fettered feet over the flames. The 
avaricious Cortes and Alderete hoped thus 
to compel their victim to reveal the secret. 
But in the midst of his excruciating pains 
he cried out : ''He who has resisted famine, 
death, and the wrath of the gods is not cap- 
able of humiliating himself now like a weak 
woman. I threw that treasure into the 
lake four days before the siege, and you 
will never find it." And they never found 
it. In our day descendants of this brave 
emperor have proven heroic martyrs for 



Planting the Mission 101 

the truth of God. When we began our 
work, persecution, instigated by fanatical 
priests, was met on every side. Twenty- 
nine martyrs bathed the foundations of our 
Church in Mexico with their royal blood. 
Heroic men and women were they ! Epig- 
menio Monroy, our pastor in Apizaco, is 
a noble example. Returning one evening 
from a preaching service in an adjoining 
town he was cruelly beaten and cut to 
pieces. About midnight he died, charging 
his family not to prosecute his slayers, and 
praying as did his Master on the uplifted 
cross, "Father, forgive them; they know 
not what they do." Such lives not only 
glorify any righteous cause; they do more. 
They raise humanity nearer God. 

After all it is not a question of race, but 
of religion. Give to any nation civil and 
religious liberty, free them completely from 
priestcraft and superstition, bring to that 
nation "the life and liberty of the sons of 
God," and they will indeed "arise and 
shine," for their light has dawned. 

Will the superb Methodist Episcopal 
Church do its great part toward this glori- 
ous consummation in Mexico? Beckoning 
opportunities stand at the open door. 



MAR 11 1907 



